So I walk into my first day of Art History, and I see this old slide projector shoved in the corner. It's kind of dusty, looks like it hasn't been used in decades, and it's freaking awesome. And I have to write about it.

The first thing to come to mind is kind of lame. The second is even more so. But the third is one I like.

I imagine the big, clunky thing comes with 50 slides. 40 are normal art slides, and show exactly what they claim to show. 10 are smudgy, ruined looking things that may or may not be family photos. When any of those ten are put in the machine, they show pictures from the user's family history, such as pictures of great grandparents or old family homes. In any other slide machine, they look like smudgy, ruined family photos.

The other 40 are uninteresting. They may be family photos, they may be art slides. I don't know at the moment, nor do I care.

Hmm. The effect of "shows pictures from family history" aspect has been done before, the first thing that comes to mind for me is SCP-1571, Keeper of Treasures.

At this point, I'm not sure about this. It could definitely be a threat to confidentiality if it produces pictures from any point in a person's life or family history, but that effect in itself falls a little flat.

Is this thing self-aware? Is there a bigger story here? Was it important to someone, and if so, how is that related to its anomalous abilities?

I think it could work. There should be some sort of thematic connection between all the slides, even if a certain number of them are anomalous compared to the rest.

As for what the anomaly is, the "family history" is a start. It's definitely a start, but there has to be more to it. As it is, it reminds me similarly of SCP-1423. That said, I like it, but it depends on where this idea goes and develops.

Im aware of the keeper of treasures. The projector only goes as,far forward as to show grandparents in their childhood.

Mostly, I want to tell a story about an old looking projector that shows REALLY old family photos. I have pictures of both the projector and some old family photos, but I want to know if its worth going onto photoshop, restoring said old photos, and making them look like a projected slide…. or finding someone to help me out with that, because I'm not sure if i still have photoshop.

Mostly, I want to tell a story about an old looking projector that shows REALLY old family photos.

I say go with a tale, then. The SCP article format is rather constraining at times, and you've got a lot of material. I feel like you can tell a more coherent story (and introduce and use many more of those pictures! It gets a little weird to see 5 or more pictures in an SCP article, but you can do way more in the framework of a tale).

Alternatively, make it an experimental log of an unlisted SCP. It'll still be a tale, but written in the form of official log documentation.

Edit: Above all, though, make sure you've got a story you really like and are willing to see through to the end before you start investing photoshop time.

I really feel like its a cop out not to write the projector as a skip as well.

Nah. I built an entire series on tales about unlisted SCPs. shameless self-promotion here, yeah, I know. ;-;

I feel if I'm gonna do something, I'm going all out. This probably makes no sense, but…

It's totally fine if you want to write a skip too! It all comes down to whichever medium presents the narrative more enjoyably for the reader. Heck, if you want, you can write about the process of writing up an SCP article (like Reality Check).